Rethinking Unionism in a Changing World of Work, Family and Community Life

This article considers the state of unionism today and argues that in strategizing for more workers' power and effective worker representation, unions have -- unsurprisingly -- focussed upon the primary domain that workers occupy: the labour market and workplaces, applying a particular repertoire of tools. While social conditions beyond the terrain of work have always mattered and sometimes been recognized by activists and theorists, these are often under-attended in analysis and strategy. Significant changes in the three interacting domains of work, household and community life since the mid-1970s in many industrialized countries have changed the circumstances in which workers' create collective power, and this is empirically illustrated by the Australian case. Understanding the three domains of work, home and community and the ways they interact and are changing is important to efforts to improve workers' lives. The article ends with consideration of implications for unions' industrial objectives, the tools applied and the way they build power.